Sales and Marketing Resource Guide

Have you ever had someone you know get arrested? Have you ever been the person that they call from jail? If so, then I bet you’ve had your fair share of run-ins with bail bondsmen. I hope this never happens to you in Texas though. If you think your city is bad when it comes to self-promoting, just look at the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Not only can your typical bail bondsman write bonds, but so can attorneys and lawyers (if licensed to do so). That makes the competition extremely fierce and the more competition there is, the shadier people can be.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some very good bail bonds agents in Dallas, Texas. There’s probably a lot of good ones actually if you think about all of the surrounding areas. However, when everyone and their brother can write a bond in that state, many of these guys are trying to get clients by giving the lowest rate possible. Honestly, I’m not sure how they make money. Furthermore, I’m not sure how they’re still in business.

If you don’t know what a bail bond is, simply put, it is a legal document backed by an insurance company that promises a defendant’s appearance in court. Since most people can’t afford to pay the full amount of bail that was set, they use a bondsman to get released from jail. They do this because a bonding company will only charge 10%-20% of the bail. If the person doesn’t show up for court though, they’ll go after the co-signer for the full bail amount. One of the newest Dallas County bail bonds review websites has sprung up which details a lot of the interactions that a person will have with a bondsman if they get that unfortunate call from the jail. You can dive further into what the bonding process is exactly on the linked website.

How a Bail Bondsman Traditionally Advertises

If you tend to stay out of bars and steer clear of shady neighborhoods, then you probably haven’t seen much in the way of advertising from a bail agent. But for the rest of us (yeah we like those types of neighborhoods), we get inundated with a lot of visual stimuli relating to the industry. There’s the signs on the bus stop shelters, paid advertising on the local networks, phone numbers on matchbook covers, and more. If you can think of a place to put your phone number that doesn’t cost too much, a bondsman has put his/her phone number there. I guarantee it.

With so much competition in Texas though, it makes you wonder how some of these smaller bonding companies are getting their business. One Tarrant County bail bonds agent has stated that in order to get more clients, he has to charge the minimal amount (10%). If he doesn’t, the potential client will just call around to other bonding companies until someone gives a cheaper rate. Sounds horrible to me! Just think of the implications here. The customer has all the power!

The Shady Side of Texas Bail Bonds

With more competition comes the necessity to either get really good at your job and hone in on your marketing plan, or cut some corners and break the law. Haha, we know that the last one isn’t a very good option, but hey, people do it!

In Texas, there are some bail bondsmen who go below the minimum percentage rate allowed by law. They’ll tell a potential customer that they’ll give them some sort of a discount/special because of this or that, and only charge them 5%. Not only does this break the Texas bail bond laws, it is an extremely poor business model.

To truly get ahead in any business, you have to market yourself like a pro, spend your advertising dollars wisely, and adhere to strict policies that diminish liability. Shady business practices (cheating) always gets found out one way or another. These guys should do themselves a favor and quit while their ahead.

For more information on the subject, please visit the company we mentioned in this article (contact info below)

Everyone knows that if you want to be known as edgy or hip, then you have to get a tattoo. One Des Moines, Iowa tattoo shop is taking this to the next level. They have partnered with major companies in the area to develop a new revenue stream for their business. It has proven to be profitable for the tattoo parlor, the client, and the companies themselves. Curious? Read on.

How a Des Moines Tattoo Parlor Has Changed the Game of Advertising

We’re not sure where the concept of getting a tattoo of your favorite business came about, but one great example is the iconic grilled cheese restaurant in Cleveland, OH called “Melt.” If someone gets a tattoo with their logo on it, with room for creative ingenuity, then that person gets free grilled cheese sandwiches for life. Sound amazing? We thought so!

If you’ve ever gotten a tattoo in Des Moines, then you’ve probably heard of this. These guys are cashing in on this niche. Any business that has a similar promotion to the one mentioned above offering discounts or freebies for getting inked has a direct line to a tattoo artist. The tattoo shop gets a cut from the company. The client gets a discounted tattoo. The company gets a unique way to advertise their business. I’m not sure if you would want to tattoo very many of your favorite businesses on your skin, but hey, if you’ve got a collection of random tats anyway, then what’s the big deal?

Des Moines, Iowa Businesses Are Slower to Adapt Then Expected

While this idea is both outside the box and effective, the businesses in Des Moines, Iowa have been a little shy to warm up to the idea of these brand tattoos. So far, there have been only a couple local businesses that have adapted this idea. Most find it alarming and too far outside of their normal advertising regimen to consider it a viable option for their brand. They say that they don’t want “that type of person” representing their brand. The companies with this type of thinking tend to be of a more conservative nature.

So how to these tattooists get more Des Moines businesses on board? Well take a look at this overview of their Des Moines tattoo resources and you’ll be able to understand their marketing. We can imagine that if they put a little bit more effort into reaching out to businesses with this idea, instead of prospective tattoo clients, then they would probably have better results.

If you have an idea like this Des Moines tattoo shop and you think that you’d like to be mentioned on our advertising blog, then feel free to drop us a line on our contact form. We get quite a few responses every month, but you never know, you’re next great idea could help a lot of people outside of your industry and your area. Don’t worry about letting go of your “company secrets.” We’ll be sure to make the story as vague as possible without giving away too many details just like we’ve done here with this tattoo parlor’s story.

Have you ever thought, “What’s the best way to sell my service?” Capstone Consultants in Charlotte, NC just might have the answer that you’ve been looking for.

I recently interviewed the president of Capstone, Brandon West, to find out what makes this marketing and sales company stand out above the rest and we shed some light on some very interesting details.

You see, a lot of sales people think that if they just get in front of enough people, they’ll be able to get their point across and someone will buy.

That might be true to some extent, but for the most part, a lot of salespeople are looking at the interaction with the customer through a very narrow point-of-view. Instead of “getting your point across,” you should be thinking about why someone would want to BUY your service. People don’t like to be forced into anything. They like to have the impression that THEY are the ones making the decisions, even if you only are giving them a couple to choose from. Here’s what Capstone Consultants does that is different from all of the other sales training programs out there right now.

How Capstone Consultants Sells So Well

First off, you have to understand what this company is selling. Take a look at the Capstone Consultants twitter feed to learn a little bit more about that. Ok, so now you understand that they are essentially the “sales arm” for a lot of other big companies out there. While they don’t sell a tangible product, you should still sell yours in the same way that they do their services.

The first step to any sale is to have a very strong introduction. Don’t jump the gun and start spewing facts and figures about your product yet (if ever). Simply just tell the person who you are and who you’d like to speak with. After that, figure out if there is a need for your product or service in the first place… AND… if the person you intended to talk to can make decisions on behalf of the company.

When you look at this Capstone Consultants profile on the Better Business Bureau, you’ll see that there are zero complaints. That’s because they don’t annoy people and force their services down their throat. They dismiss themselves when a sale isn’t to be had. So, that’s the second biggest rule of engagement. Don’t go barking up the wrong tree if there are several signs of disinterest or if the person can’t make the decision in the first place.

After that, just make sure to ask plenty of questions (sort of interview the prospect). Eventually, they’ll start asking YOU questions about your product. It’s really that simple.

So, by maintaining an equally balanced conversation with your prospect, you can sell a ton of your products in the future. Now, get out there and start selling!

Every business owner knows that a product or service is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. What many fail to realize is that there is something even more important beyond that. If your target market doesn’t know about your product or service, then no one is going to buy it. Period. I’ve looked into the field of laser vision correction and found that many of the LASIK surgeons throughout the United States aren’t marketing their services very well. They’re leaving dollars on the table that are going straight to their competitors.

Sure, you might think that there’s enough customers to go around, but don’t you want most of them? Don’t you want it to be YOUR choice to turn customers away because you are simply too busy to schedule them for an operation? Of course you do, and in this post, you’re going to discover a couple of intelligent ways to market your LASIK practice so that you can get some of those new customers who are looking for correct their vision right this very minute.

Here’s a simple case study of what LASIK Atlanta has been doing and how it’s been working for them. Feel free to steal as much information as you want from this post and apply it to your own practice.

Exactly What LASIK Atlanta Has Been Doing to Get New Customers

So from what I can tell, the organization was only started a few months back. According to the registration of the website, it’s only been around for three months (at the time of me writing this piece). However, the owner of the website, Tom Spradlin, has been in numerous interviews throughout the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan news circuit and he’s doing a great job of promoting his free service for consumers. What is this service, you might ask?

LasikAtlanta.org is an all-inclusive consumer advocacy site detailing the in’s and out’s of the field of laser vision correction. It only focuses on one specific area…Atlanta, GA. According to Mr. Spradlin’s recent interview, the reason for focusing on Atlanta only, is so his staff members can take the time to thoroughly vet all of the LASIK surgeons in the area. Since it’s such a new organization, doing anything else outside of it’s headquarters would be taking on too much, and they don’t want to overextend themselves.

If you look on the LASIK Atlanta Facebook page, you’ll see that they update their content frequently with the appropriate hashtags to gain interest from people searching for corrective vision surgery. It doesn’t matter if the potential customer has astigmatism, nearsightedness, or farsightedness, they address all concerns right there on their fanpage.

Be Like LASIK Atlanta and Put Out Fresh Content.

Another thing that this organization is doing extremely well is putting out additional websites that address specific problems and frequently asked questions. For instance, they’ve got a blogspot site, a tumblr site, an instagram account, twitter, and many others that they update frequently. Each of these addresses very specific issues all tied to vision correction, but with certain themes dedicated to each. For instance, on their wix site, they only talk about LASIK cost management. You see what they did there?

For more information on how you can use this information to market your own LASIK practice, shoot us an email and if we get enough interest, we’ll spell it out for you on our next post.

So all of a sudden, almost out of nowhere, I’m seeing a ton of advertising and marketing being done for companies that produce varicose veins treatment creams, supplements, herbal tonics, and devices. What most of the American public doesn’t know, is that almost all sales language is completely made up to sound like the best doctors in the country have recently ‘uncovered’ some breakthrough formula. It’s all the same. I asked the marketing gurus over at Veritas Inc what they thought about it and what they had to say completely blew my mind. The president of the marketing firm stated that this type of marketing has been going on for ages. It’s not just with spider vein treatments either. It’s with anything health related. Where someone can stand to make a few bucks from selling a product, you can be sure that there are plenty of marketers waiting in line to promote that very product.

Granted, according to the Safety & Health Council on Varicose Veins, there are certain natural treatments that people can use that seem to be pretty effective. To read more about the legitimacy of the options for varicose veins and natural treatment, be sure to investigate the authority on the subject, the SHC. Now that being said, there are plenty of other people with fake testimonials saying that this product or that product is better than all the rest. What I can’t believe still is that most people believe what they read! They say a sucker is born every minute, but with the availability of the internet, it’s more like every second!

Here’s what these guys do…they take the same old ingredients that all of the other supplements for varicose veins have in them and come up with a new fancy name. They then come up with new packaging and place all of the required warning labels on it. They make it look as though it’s the newest thing on the market, but neglect to tell people that they could have bought it under a ton of other names as well.

You see with most of the natural treatments out there, not just for varicose veins, the ingredients aren’t really proprietary, Many scientists are able to reverse-engineer what all is in varicose veins natural treatments and give that information over to any company willing to pay the money. I don’t know about you, but that seems just a little shady to me…but I guess that’s just marketing.

A lot of local residents have unfortunately found out that in Atlanta SEO is not necessarily marketing. Every business inside the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area gets several phone calls a week for search engine optimization services, and most of them make empty promises.

In the marketing world, everyone loves to say that they do “SEO.” Everyone just loves the title for some reason and they also love to say that they do “digital marketing” or “online brand management.” What you have to consider though, is that there are no requirements to give yourself a title like that. The one Atlanta search engine optimization company that is actually a specialist (that I know of) is called Force Boost. Here’s the company’s contact information if you’re interested in increasing you company’s search engine visibility. I’ve had experience with them in ranking this website, and also with the keyword research itself, and I know for a fact that they do a great job with any online marketing campaign.

One of the things that you should be increasingly aware of when a random company calls your receptionist and asks for the owner to give some SEO services is the price point. A lot of these companies are offering seemingly spectacular services for $500 a month. Now tell me this. If you could pay an employee $125 per week to perform a job for you, how good of a job do you think they will do? I mean, seriously. Every company out there has different levels of competition on the search engines and a one-price-fits-all method should definitely raise a few red flags in your eyes.

Another thing to be wary of is when a company offers to give you a SEO’d listing on directory sites. First of all, you can do that yourself. In fact, you could hire an intern to find all of the relevant web directories in your industry and submit your information. You wouldn’t have to pay them a thing! So, why doesn’t everyone hire someone to do this? Well, to be quite honest with you, there’s no value in it anymore. A lot of these “SEO companies” are just sticking to what used to work ten years ago and selling it to business owners who don’t know any better. Be careful of that.

The last thing I would say to look out for, especially in Atlanta, Georgia, is surprisingly optimistic expectations of results. Some Atlanta search engine optimization companies will make claims that you will see results in 30 days or your money back. While this does seem very inticing, it’s a bunch of b.s. No one can rank a website in thirty days. They may be able to rank your website for some meaningless term that no one is searching for, but not for anything that is going to yield you any new customers. Just because the keyword research shows that people are searching for something quite a bit, doesn’t mean that those people are looking to buy a particular service or product.

All in all, when searching for Atlanta SEO services, I highly recommend you check out the SEO company, Force Boost. Again, I’ve had personal experiences with the company and they do great work with social media marketing, web design, and reputation management. If you choose to go with another company, that’s perfectly fine, but I hope the above warnings stick with you on your hunt.

The following is a case study that Veritas Inc did with an Atlanta bail bonds company who offer their services 24 hours a day. It’s not these people never sleep, its just that they have separate shifts that they work. You never know who is going to need bail money at four in the morning. But these people need someone that they can rely on to get them out of jail…preferably quickly.

So, Veritas Inc worked with them. Here’s what they did in the early stages of the marketing campaign. They worked on the company’s social media properties and optimized them with their current hours. 24/7 isn’t an option on most platforms, but they figured out how to make it work across all current social media.

The company then when into the the separate pages of the bail bonds website that the company has set up and made sure that the mention of their hours was listed somewhere on the page. You have to be aware of over-optimization a lot of times these days, so they just made sure their bonding agency had these mentions just once or twice per page.

After just those few tweaks, their phone started ringing after hours. It turns out that people were actively searching for this term online. Who knew? Right? Wrong. Veritas knew and through their keyword research, they were able to find these customers who were reaching out to random companies who didn’t actually state their hours anywhere on the G+ profiles or their website. What a waste. But it didn’t stop there.

The next thing that this marketing firm did for the bonding agency was to create multiple citations all over the web that look like this:

This is called a NAP citation. It stands for “name, address, phone number.” This method doesn’t just apply to a bondsman, it works for any local business that wants better local listings. In Atlanta and the Cobb County area especially, the competition can be pretty fierce. Someone who is just trying to get their foothold in the industry can be beaten out pretty quickly because these other companies that have long-been established have a budget that they can throw at marketing. Luckily enough, there’s room for this bail bonds company to rise to the top. These company’s aren’t that good at marketing.

I hope you never find yourself in a situation in which you will need 24 hour bail bonds in Atlanta, but if you do, you can always just use the contact information above, or you can use this map that we’ve provided to find some of the other bondsman agencies in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area…especially Cobb County.

I’ll update this post a little later with additional information and our findings. So far…so good though. The company has reported a strong influx of phone calls from people who need bailed out during the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunate for them, but good for business I suppose.